r/TheTerror

The Search For Stannard's Grave

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aBfy_sFZEZI

You might rember on the show a flashback scene where Franklin and Lady Jane discuss his disappointing term as governor of Tasmania, and how it was a setback for his career. He needed to accept command of the Northwest Passage expedition to get his career back on track.

While in Tasmania (in real life) Franklin went on an expedition to explore the south-west wilderness of the island, and many features were named after him and his family. Including the Franklin River, the Jane river (named after Lady Jane) and even the Cracroft River named after Sophia Cracroft, Crozier's love interest.

In the 19th century, lumberjacks or piners pushed deep into the Tasmanian wilderness along the rivers, looking for the very valuable Huon pine. John Stannard died in 1901 in an accident, and was buried on the Jane River. The location of his grave was lost until 2021 when it was rediscovered.

If you are now thinking your obession with Arctic exploration and The Terror might be threatened by a new obsession with Tasmanian Gothic, I recommend the films "The Last Confession Of Alexander Pearce" and "The Hunter" 2011. If you like books, try "Death Of A River Guide" by Richard Flanagan.

I hope someone here sees this post and finds something new that they like.

I've been fascinated by the Franklin expedition for years.

What fascinates me isn't just what happened, but what it must have felt like to be one of those men as the expedition slowly unravelled. Trapped in the ice, increasingly isolated, and with absolutely no idea that nearly two centuries later people would still be trying to piece together their story.

That became the idea behind a song we've written called HMS Terror.

Rather than trying to literally retell the history, we imagined the song from the perspective of one of the men aboard. I wanted the lyrics to capture that isolation, fear and uncertainty of knowing something has gone terribly wrong, but having no idea how the story is going to end.

The thing that's always fascinated me most, though, is the name. It's literally called Terror. And terror is presumably exactly what those men must have felt as everything started falling apart. It's kind of insane when you think about it.

Anyway, I'm Matt from The October Prize and we've released the song today. The lyrics took me a while to write, and I'm hoping people in this thread will spot some of the nods to the story :)

Would genuinely love to know what you think. And don't forget to turn it up loud.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6Vao5exoTieUqaLr1cYqEY?si=FbrbHPZOS12QGg8x86Ck8A

Love,

Matt (& Emma)
The October Prize